Bentley inaugurates new president

Larson is first woman to lead Waltham college

Gloria Cordes Larson, a former lawyer and politician, was introduced as Bentley College's seventh president yesterday. (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff)

Bentley College inaugurated its first female president, Gloria Cordes Larson, during a ceremony at the school's Waltham campus yesterday.

Larson, who assumed the presidency in July, left a position as a public policy lawyer for Foley Hoag to become Bentley's seventh president. At the afternoon ceremony in the Charles A. Dana Center, Larson said her experience outside academia would influence her goals for the school, which has about 5,500 students.

"I believe one of my most important roles as president is to further Bentley's connections to the worlds I know, the worlds of business, education, government, law, nonprofits, and society more broadly and to draw on my own experiences to represent these worlds here," she said to an estimated 1,000 onlookers. "I want to enhance the connections that already exist with our many constituents and partners and help build new ones in the singular ways that we are so well positioned to do."

Among the guests was Governor Deval Patrick. Larson led a business advisory cabinet for Patrick and cochaired his transition team. She served as chairwoman of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, which oversaw the renovation of the MassMutual Center in Springfield and the construction of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

In her speech, Larson spoke of the importance of continuing to connect classroom theory to practice.

"Our connected approach to all aspects of a business education, scholarly work, and external engagement is, in my view, exactly what's needed in a complex, multidimensional world," she said, highlighting several programs that connected the school's disciplines and goals.

Alluding to recent corporate scandals, she also stressed the importance of graduating leaders with strong ethical standards.

"These will be ethically grounded leaders who combine left brain analysis and business process skills with right brain qualities of creativity, empathy, and an appreciation for other perspectives. These will be leaders who will create and lead better organizations and help build better communities wherever in the world they go," she said.

Larson, a lawyer, received her bachelor's degree from Vassar College and a law degree from the University of Virginia.

Bentley, known for its business studies, has an undergraduate school that combines business with a foundation in the arts and sciences. The McCallum Graduate School offers an MBA, a master's of science programs, doctoral programs, and executive programs.